Scoops are used in a variety of ways to gather and store or discard items and materials. Scoops may therefore be designed and constructed in a variety of ways to suit a variety of needs and applications. For instance, hand operated sediment sampling scoops may be used in seabed and continental shelf research. Even automated and detachable caching scoops, such as those of the Mars Rover, are used in soils and sample acquisition of other planets. On the other hand, refuse collection devices including the common dustpan are also used to keep domestic and commercial establishments clean. Scientists and children alike may even use the proverbial glass jar for collecting insects, small animals and plant samples. Furthermore, conscientious pet owners may use scoop devices including simple plastic bags for collecting dog feces in public places to comply with city ordinances and on their own property to maintain sanitary grounds.
However, all of these devices fall short as a ubiquitous and universal device for collecting, gathering, storing and shipping and handling of live, sterile, hot and cold, research items and materials and even common refuse. For instance, though it works well as a storage container for displaying insects, coaxing a frog or a tarantula spider into a glass jar is not an effective way of collecting specimens. On the other hand, though a leather glove may be an easier way to gather and handle an item, it does not of course store items very effectively. More sophisticated devices such as the seabed sediment sampling scoops and the Mars Rover sample acquisition scoops are complex, heavy, expensive and constructed for specialized use and maya not be available to the general public.